


Glitch

by CannibaLilly



Series: Goretober 2017 [8]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Needles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 16:17:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12302883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CannibaLilly/pseuds/CannibaLilly
Summary: Donna gets a health check with some extras...Day 8 of my Goretober challenge!





	Glitch

**Author's Note:**

> Goretober Rating: (4/10). Could have been way scarier if I had let it escalate... Damn it! I need to start killing characters for Goretober!

Donna knew she had vastly underestimated the statement “it's just a routine health-check” the moment the glass tube slid down and captured her. Instinctively she pressed her hands against the cold surface and tried to push. Of course the glass wouldn't give way.

 

“Relax, it just figured your VR-check is broken or- Geez, you don't have one at all,” the woman with the shortly cropped said. She was young, younger than Donna, and operated a terminal in the medical bay.

 

“Damn right I don't. And it'd better stay that way,” Donna replied, fear fuelling her anger. A metal arm descended through the ceiling and joined Donna in her glass tube. “Oy!” she pounded her fists against the glass.

 

The sound attracted the Doctor, who had been bent over a computer terminal on the other side of the room. He took off his brainy specs and walked over. He walked quickly, but didn't seem alarmed, so Donna allowed herself to calm down.

 

“You okay in there?” he asked, his voice was muffled by the glass between them.

 

Donna spread her arms as far as the tube would allow her to. “What do you think?”

 

“Looks like a routine health-check to me,” the Doctor commented and glanced at the girl for confirmation. She nodded, happy that at least he seemed to understand, and turned the monitor of her computer so he could see. “Oh, and look! They're giving you a VR-checker as well, now that's nice. Usually those are really expensive.”

 

“Part of our general health insurance plan,” the girl explained and the Doctor whistled approvingly.

 

“Spaceman!” Donna barked. The metal arm had come dangerously close to her. “Get me _out_.”

 

“Is there a way to cancel the program...” he glanced at her nametag, “Julia?” The girl wiped her finger up over the display, scrolling through whatever protocol. The arm continued to descent and Donna hunkered down in the tube.

 

“Julia?!” her voice higher than she had wanted. She couldn't help it, the metal arm had grown a thin needle and was approaching her.

 

“Err,” Julia's finger moved faster. “Uhm, I'm sure there must be, I just... can't seem to find it.”

 

The Doctor, realising there was no time to get Donna out, said, “Donna, hold still.” Donna squeeze her eyes shut. She didn't want whatever was about to happen to happen, but the firmness in the Doctor's voice scared her fighting off the arm might result in something worse than an unwanted injection.

 

As a child she had been scared of getting vaccinated, but her mum had told her she might break off the needle if he fidgeted too much and it would get stuck in her arm. She hadn't been afraid of vaccinations after that, only of needles.

 

For a moment, nothing happened, except for Donna's heart drumming in her ears. Then something bit into her temple and before she managed to yelp, it stopped. Donna didn't open her eyes until she heard Julia saying, “there it is!” followed by an electronical bleeping sound.

 

Donna opened her eyes jus in time to see both the metal arm and the glass tube ascending back into the ceiling. Then the Doctor was at her side. “You okay?”

 

“Of course I'm not!” she snapped. “What did they just jab into my head?!”

 

“Err,”

 

“If you say, it was that VR-thingy,” she threatened, pointing a finger at him.

 

“Err,” the Doctor echoed and Donna's expression darkened. “Look, it's a really harmless device,” he offered to pacify her, but he stood up to get some distance between them in case she decided she wanted to hit him. He scrolled over Julia's computer and skimmed whatever he saw there.

 

“Yup, harmless. It's the good-old, safe default model. The C4 version before the upgraded it to 5 and these things became semi-sentient and turned against them. Err, Julia, forget what I just said. You lot do you, don't let me interfere.”

 

Julia looked at the Doctor with wide eyes and Donna slowly rose to her feet. Gingerly, she dared to touch her temple where the needle had penetrated the skin. She flinched out of habit, but the second time she touch it, she realised she couldn't feel a thing. No punctuation, no bump and not even sore skin.

 

“See?” he asked with a hesitant smile. “All good.”

 

She lowered her hand. “I want it gone.”

 

“But-”

 

“I don't care how safe it is,” she interrupted him. “Get it out of my head.”

 

“If you got used to it, you'd see all the perks it has. It has a built in dictionary for example.”

 

“So does the TARDIS, without having to use brain surgery.”

 

“It also takes calls and has a tracking device. We could never lose each other on a foreign world again.”

 

“If you're so scared of us losing each other, why don't you wear a dog collar. They come with tracking devices too, plus a fancy leash.”

 

“Donna, it surveys your vital signs, keeps a profile of your general well-being and it has access to-”

 

“I. Don't. Care. Spaceman, listen to me. I shouldn't have to ask that of you. If I want it removed, you remove it. End of argument. It's my body! And I can't recall ever having asked for an upgrade.”

 

Donna didn't know why, but the Doctor visibly flinched at the last word. “Right. No, of course, you're right. Sorry. Julia?”

 

“We-we never had to remove a VR-checker. I'm sorry. We can fix them when they are broken, but remove... Excuse, what did you mean by turn against us?”

 

The Doctor sharply turned around, offering Donna his arm. “Let's get you into the TARDIS. I've got everything I need there to remove the VR. Good-bye, Julia. It was so nice meeting you. Take care. Also, maybe stop working here when they bring out the new upgrade. Or not. As I said, I don't wanna interfere. Bye.”

 

Together, they hurried back to the TARDIS. “Better get us out of here,” the Doctor mumbled and started punching in a new location into the TARDIS' keyboard.

 

“Spaceman. Could we do my head first?”

 

“Sure, just a moment. We'd better be off before Julia decides she wants some answers and comes knocking-” He flicked a lever to start the TARDIS before finishing the sentence. The rest of it was lost in the humming of the engines and Donna's agonized screaming.

 

She pressed her hands against her head to keep it from bursting. Her mind seemed to be on fire. Even though she kept her eyes close, colours exploded in front of her, bright and blinding and impossible to shut out while her eardrums were pierced by a cacophony of sounds.

 

It all lasted for maybe thirty seconds, then it was over and Donna was kneeling on the floor. Tears streaming from her eyes and her hands clamped around her head.

 

Slowly, much too slowly, the pain started ebbing away. The lights faded from view and silence returned to her and she could push herself up on wobbly legs. She didn't know how, all she knew was that she had just caught the briefest glimpse at what the TARDIS was. At how she worked and felt, and it had almost driven her mad.

 

She stumbled back to the doors. Out. Just away from the ship.

 

“Donna!” the Doctor's voice was like white noise. She pushed herself through the doors and stumbled out, back into the hallway of the medical bay they had wanted to leave. True to the Doctor's prediction, Julia came jogging down the corridor. Her determined look giving way to a worried one as she spotted Donna.

 

Donna's view cleared and as Julia's face came into view, so did all kinds of windows full of text. Information about Julia, private details, pictures of other people that were connected to her. “You were kicked out of school for arson?” Donna muttered and Julia's eyes widened.

 

“How do you know that?” it was the Doctor's voice and Donna closed her eyes again. Everything was still so blurry. “Donna? Are you still in touch with the TARDIS? What else can you see?”

 

“I can see... everything about Julia. Birthday, health stuff, her diary and... that is some really messed up way to break-up with someone, Julia.”

 

“Make her stop!” Julia snapped.

 

“Donna, look at me,” the Doctor said, but Donna kept her eyes closed.

 

“No. All that stuff about Julia is overwhelming and she's only what? 30?”

 

“I'm 24!”

 

“You're 900 something. That'd kill me!”

 

“It won't. I promise. I need to know if you can see anything about me, Donna. It's important.”

 

Tentatively, Donna turned around to the Doctor and opened her left eye just a fraction. His face swam into view and next to him, windows popped up.

 

The Doctor tilted his head. “So? What do you see?”

 

Donna squinted and then her eyes opened wide. “So that's what your real name is.”

 

The Doctor' gaped at her and Donna couldn't keep a smile from spreading over her face. “Just kidding. All I see when I look at you are a bunch of question marks.”

 

He sighed. “Don't _ever_ do that again, you hear me?”

 

“My mind almost combusted, don't I get to have some fun out of this? It's just a name anyway, isn't it?”

 

“That's not the point right now. I'm not in Julia's database. If you'd seen anything about me, it would have meant the TARDIS had permanently burned itself into your mind. That would have been bad.”

 

“How bad?”

 

“Bad bad. But since you can't see anything that means it's not the TARDIS telling you these things. Its engines simply burned a circuit in your VR-checker and granted you complete access to everyone's files.”

 

“Oh God,” Julia gasped. “That means she knows... everything! About everyone!”

 

“Oh, don't get your knickers into a twist. I'm not from around here, I'm not gonna blackmail you. Even though you'd deserve it for injecting me with this ultra-facebook.”

 

“Don't worry, we'll get the device out of your head. Right now.”

 

“I'm not going back in there,” Donna pointed at the TARDIS.

 

“It'll be okay. You're completely safe as long as we don't move her,” the Doctor offered her his hand. 

 

“Are you sure?” she asked, hesitant to take his hand. “This wasn't like what you did to me in that Ood prison. This was way worse.”

 

He smiled. “I promise.” And with a sigh, Donna took his hand.


End file.
